The Itsy Bitsy Spider

You know what's odd? I haven't taken any pictures this month. No pictures for June. We've been busy, but not with picture worthy things I guess.

I thought maybe I would give a speech update on Tyler. He says a lot of spontaneous words now. I think it's to the point where there are too many to name. His phrases have picked up but most of them still involve "Mommy this" or "Daddy that". They really want him to say more phrases that involve descriptive words (like big, small, etc) or verbs. Colors don't count because he says colors for everything so we're trying to move past that. His favorite word is definitely, "nope!". He picked that up from me and now if you ask him a question that's his answer. If you ask him a question and his answer is yes, he will only make an affirmative sound, not say the word. After harping on him for quite awhile about this I realized that's exactly what I do. Having a kid is a great way to learn your habits! Another word he knows really well is chocolate. Can't imagine who he picked that up from!

He occasionally requests to do Itsy Bitsy Spider with Dan. I think Tyler recognizes that I can't sing and Dan can, so Dan is the lucky one to do this all the time. I think Tyler is going to be able to sing because he doesn't sound that bad with Dan. I like the look Tyler gives the camera at the end.

May was busy!

I'm so glad May is over. It was fun but it was very busy. I'm now ready for the summer to slowly creep along. Does that ever happen? It will be Christmas before I know it. A few weekends ago Dan and I celebrated our 6th anniversary. We dropped the kid of with the grandparents (yay!) and headed to Maquoketa Caves State Park. We hiked and explored caves for a few hours. The weather was perfect and the park was gorgeous. When we were done we headed to a bed and breakfast for some relaxation. It was a great weekend!

Dan heading into the main cave which is big enough to walk through (my kind of cave!).

This is called balancing rock or balanced rock or something like that. Not sure if you can tell in the picture how it looks like it's ready to roll off down the hill.

Here I am!

This is called the natural bridge. I decided I needed to be in the picture so you could get a feel for how big it is. Can you see me? I'm the small speck of blue in the center of the photo.

Dan crawling into a cave. Crawling into caves is not my thing.

It had rained a lot that week so the park was very lush and green. It was so nice to be outside!

Last Saturday Dan ran his first half-marathon! It was in Des Moines and is called Dam to Dam. He had been training for awhile for this race. He did a great job (just beat his goal time by 30 seconds). It was exciting to head downtown and see him run for the finish line. It was NOT fun trying to find him after that. =)

Here he is running towards the finish (you can see him between the two women in the foreground)

Tyler checking out dad's medal

Done! I'm so proud of him!